


Canis Major and the Swallow

by ArtisticVicu



Series: Assorted Prompt Writings [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Lovers to enemies to lovers, M/M, Original Character(s), Secret Identities, Superpowers, Unwanted Responsibilities, caffeine challenges, caffeinewitchcraft, old history, superhero/supervillain - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:00:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23421352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtisticVicu/pseuds/ArtisticVicu
Summary: When he had gone to confront the great Canis Major as himself rather than the Swallow, he had a few ideas of how it would go. But what he had expected wasn't what happened and he's suddenly forced to face a past full of love and heartbreak with a man who had become a villain.He never actually intended to mend bridges.As a note:Caffeine Challenges are writing challenges where CaffeineWitchcraft chooses a prompt or three and posts it for all to write on for one hour. It can be a continuation of a work, a new story, or a reflection. There is no rigidity to following the prompt: you can use part of the prompt, the whole prompt or no prompt.These are the ones I participated in over the given weekend they were posted.
Relationships: hero/villain - Relationship
Series: Assorted Prompt Writings [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684657
Kudos: 1





	1. Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts:  
>  _Song prompt: The One Who Laughs Last by Downplay  
>  Image Prompt:_  
> 

The suspension cable was burning cold against his palm but it was barely registering at the back of his mind. His entire attention was on the tall skyscraper before him, waiting as he listened to the wind.

It spoke in ways that those that had never lived on their wings would understand. It whispered to him in ways that did not have words but his wings knew and his soul knew and so he trusted it when it said to let go.

He kicked off the suspension bridge, letting gravity take hold of him at the crest of his leap and drag him down towards the river below.

The wind sang around him and he watched the dark waters come rushing up to meet him.

His wings snapped out to either side, slicing through the air and gaining lift even as he kept diving.

The toes of his shoes skimmed the surface of the river when he pulled out of the dive. Momentum kept him going for so long but the wind was singing to him again and it was easy finding the rhythm needed to keep him going fast and low over the choppy surface.

Land approached sooner than he would have liked and he started to ascend. The distance between him and the horizontal plain grew steadily. By the time the pier and its buildings were passing beneath him, he was already level with the skyscraper’s 20th floor.

He felt the thmp-thmp-thmp of the helicopter blades before he heard them over the wind. The spotlight was on him in quick succession.

With a growl, he rolled with a tuck of his wings and let gravity grab him again. He had dropped maybe two stories when he righted himself and shot towards the helicopter’s belly.

The spotlight was tracking him rather well. He smirked. A breath of the brutal downdraft and he pulled his wings in around him, letting the burst of downward air shove him faster towards the city below than any drop would have managed.

He uncurled one wing enough to catch the air and spin him out of the downdraft. The spotlight kept going, kept looking for him, but he was already landing a few blocks towards the pier as the helicopter - somehow he missed the buddies the helicopter had - and company moved deeper into the city.

He gave his wings a solid beat, stirring up dust and debris as a few feathers were shaken loose. It worked to straighten out some of the kinked feathers, though, as he started for the skyscraper on foot.

The mess of his hair from the mask was easily handled with a quick hand and commonly looking like he had just rolled out of bed. The mask was tucked into an inner pocket of his outer coat. He removed it before he came into view of the skyscraper’s first floor and tucked it under the jacket he had underneath. His wing hid the fabric bulge rather well and no one was going to pay enough attention to his person to notice, not when-

“Mr. Fugama!” the receptionist called out, surprise quickly followed by a sort of fan like glee dancing across the young man’s face. “What are you doing here?”

He gave the other a quick smile as he did his best to hide his nausea at the reaction. Honestly, why did everyone think it was necessary to treat him like some celebrity? “Is Salto still in?”

“Mr. Archeros should still be in his office.” The young man’s expression fell. “But you best hurry. I do not think he is planning on staying for much longer, sir. Do you want me to call ahead?”

He dipped his head, coaxing his smile into something a bit more fetching. The blush on the young man’s face told him it had worked. “No, but thank you.”

The young man nodded and he left the space swiftly.

The elevator opened upon his press of the button. Stepping in and closing the door, he waited till the elevator started moving to secure the bundled coat against the small of his back. Depending on how this went, he wasn’t overly worried about it falling out.

The elevator chimed and the doors opened to reveal one Salto Archeros.

“Lennix?” the man asked as the other’s companions were revealed. A happy smile curled onto the man’s face. “What are you doing here?”

“I figured it was time to have that little chat you keep wanting to have,” he stated rather dully.

Confusion flickered under the other’s pristine mask. It would only be a moment before the other figured it out. “I wish I could stay and chat, Len old chap, but I had a very important meeting at the other side of town that I must-”

“It wasn’t a suggestion, _Salto_.” The man’s name was heavy on his tongue and he spat it out with a fluff of his feathers.

That got the other man’s attention and understanding registered under the cracking mask.

The man’s two companions had no problem seeing a threat, though. The one on the right charged him first. It was easy to duck and shove a fist into the man’s gut before shoving said man over his shoulder and down his back to the floor. The second one came at him before the first one had hit the floor properly. He threw his hands to the floor and kicked off the ground. His first kick from the cartwheel was blocked but it was enough of a decrease in momentum that he twisted and brought his other leg around, catching the man upside the head and throwing him into the wall.

Salto was there before his feet touched the ground fully. Lennix threw out a wing in hopes of clipping the man in the face but the other slipped under and Lennix used the close proximity to aim a knee at Salto’s head.

The man blocked it with his shoulder and forearm, catching Lennox in the shoulder with a sharp punch with his free hand.

Lennix rolled with it, snapping out with his wings even as his shoulder throbbed. Salto ducked in again. This time Lennix managed to get a punch thrown but the man caught it, kept going, and yanked Lennix’s arm behind his back. Salto hooked his leg and shoved him sideways, pinning him to the wall with is wrist between his shoulders. Before he could even counter, Salto grabbed at his wings at the shoulder and pinned them to one side, effectively ripping a pained cry from him.

“Why are you here, _Swallow_ ,” Salto hissed, teeth clashing in his ear.

“The same reason why you showed up on my doorstep, _Canis_ ,” he retaliated, jerking against both painful holds and actually managing to swallow the pain that came with it.

He couldn’t see. His head was pinned facing over his right shoulder but Salto was standing behind his left. He couldn’t see the man’s expression, couldn’t read the feel of the man’s grip, and the air was too still to speak to him.

Both holds vanished and Lennix spun to find Salto already stepping away. “Fine. But we’re not having that conversation here.”

Frowning, Lennix fell into step behind Salto.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts:  
>  _1) Dialogue prompt: “When Man Discovered Magic, The World Stood Still With Wonder”  
>  2) Song prompt: Hotel Room by Blake Rose  
> 3) Image prompt:_  
> 

Lennix expected Salto to enter his office so when the other stopped at the door and closed it, Lennix found the words tumbling out. “What are you doing?”

“There’s a quaint hotel I like to stay at,” Salto offered, sounding bored as he produced something out of an inner pocket. “I will be surprised if you don’t recognize it.”

He frowned at that as the door flashed. “We’re not staying here?”

Salto arched an eyebrow as he pocketed whatever the item had been. “And be where those two can touch you when they wake?” The man opened the door. “I would like to avoid another confrontation, thank you very much.”

Lennix bristled at the view beyond the door. He recognized the gate before he even saw the rest of the building and stared at Salto.

The other simply arched an eyebrow at him again and gestured for him to go first.

He pulled his wings tight against his back and stepped through the door. Sure enough, he stepped out onto a street he hadn’t been to in years but knew still to this day. He looked around as he tried to not drown by all the memories and emotions that slammed into him.

“Very little seems to change here.”

He looked back at Salto. The door closed behind the man and it was like it had never existed in the first place. He searched the other’s expression, finding nothing more than weariness and nostalgia on an expression not even directed at him. Instead, those eyes were locked onto the building behind the gate and Lennix wondered if Salto was in a similar state was he was.

A child ran past with a squealing laugh bubbling out of them. They were quickly followed by half a dozen others all screaming and laughing, breaking whatever mood they had fallen into. The adults corralling the children hurried past, one shooting him and Salto an apologetic smile.

“Come on,” Salto spoke, crossing between Lennix and the retreating storm of children and caretakers. “We had a conversation to get to, remember?”

“Yeah,” he offered weakly and trailed behind the other.

The structure itself was very well done, though it left him wondering if it was meant to look like something out of Wonderland despite its blue color scheme. The winding stairs up to the front deck were still well kept but looked aged. Or maybe they had always been like that and he had long forgotten.

At least the front desk associate was more refined than the one that had greeted him at Salto’s workplace.

Up the stairs they went and down the long hall to a door on the end. Something about the room number tickled at the back of his mind.

“I had forgotten how big this place was,” he commented as Salto unlocked the door.

Salto shifted so that Lennix lost sight of his expression. “The front can certainly be deceiving.”

The door clicked open and his stomach dropped.

“This is the same room, isn’t it?”

Salto had made it two thirds of the way to the balcony sliding glass door by the time he had voiced his thought and the man stopped, turning to look at him. “I am not getting another room, Fugama. It’s this or we don’t talk. Your choice.”

Lennix did his best not to flinch from that and crossed the threshold.

Salto opened the balcony door and stepped out, leaning on the railing heavily. Lennix made sure the door was locked before he crossed to the large double bed and sat down on the foot of it, trying not to think about what had happened in the room before all this.

“When Man discovered Magic, the World stood still with Wonder,” Salto quoted, his words muffled by his direction. The wind brought it to Lennix anyways.

“For Wonder would turn to Terror before the new century met its end, leaving the World blind,” Lennix finished out of habit. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You still believing that old thing?”

Salto laughed. “After everything?” he asked, words edged in manic as he gestured wildly outward. He pushed away from the railing and stormed into the room, a grin on his face that twisted Lennix’s stomach. “After everything that happened in this room?” The man gained some of his composure back as he turned away. Lennix caught a flash of disgust and weariness. “How could I not?”

“Was it all that bad?”

“You cheated on me!” Salto bellowed, turning on his with such violence that Lennix felt the air rush past him as it quivered with the other’s energy. “And lied to me for years!”

“That had been a lapse of judgment from too much alcohol and you know it!” Lennix shot back, on his feet before he even knew he wanted to stand. He deflated because he had come to recognize that wasn’t fair and not the whole of it all. “Please, Salto. Yes, I had drunk too much that night and yes, I should have known it was someone else, but they….” He shook his head. He still didn’t understand how they had convinced him to cheat on Salto. “I did better, tried harder,” he tried again. “I hadn’t asked to be thrust into the roll of a superhero and I didn’t want you dragged into that either.”

Salto scoffed. “And, what? Thought it would be a great idea to leave me at the hands of the Villain Corp instead?”

Lennix took a step towards the other, urging, “I hadn’t even realized they were recruiting, let alone recruiting you.”

“I told you they were!” Salto shot back.

“When?” Lennix demanded but the word sounded broken and the beg far too heavy to be anything but. “Had I’d known, I would have done anything to get you out, sworn to secrecy be damned!”

“Let go of me.”

Lennix gave a start, thrown off by the very level, very cold statement. He realized how close he had gotten, could feel the magic that naturally existed in the man’s aura pressing against its bounds to be released.

He realized he was gripping Salto’s upper arms.

It took far more effort to let go now that he could feel the magic rolling beneath Salto’s skin again.

“Sorry,” he offered meekly, taking a step back.

Silence echoed between them and Lennix found his gaze on some point beyond Salto’s shoulder when the other spoke again.

“Two days after the Magnum Incident,” Salto spoke carefully, his voice filling the void of silence between them. “I had told you that I had received a recruitment letter from In-Sight Us.”

Lennix sucked in air between his teeth, this time outwardly flinching back from the words. “Shit,” he pushed past clenched teeth. He forced his wings against his back, running a hand over his face. “I had gotten cornered by Kingsman on my way home.”

“The Kingsman recruited you?” Salto asked and years of villanry had disbelief edging the comment.

Lennix shook his head. “I don’t know why he wanted me but he had bound my tongue. I couldn’t talk about it with anyone, let alone you, so I couldn’t process my thoughts properly.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I had heard In Sights, the eye company you had been looking to get into.”

Something shifted across Salto’s face. “I hadn’t thought about my ophthalmologist training since the day In-Sight Us recruited me.”

Lennix gave a weak, hesitant chuckle. “You had been so passionate about your field and now look at you. Part of the largest collection of villains and head of one of the most honest companies in the world.”

Salto laughed. Lennix caught the watery edge to the sound. “How did we end up like this, Lennix?”

Lennix shook his head. “I don’t know but I’m willing to give this ten year old chat a go if you are.”

Salto snorted at that but the man gestured at the bed. “Might as well put an end to all of this.”

Lennix plopped back down on the edge of the bed as Salto grabbed the desk chair. Lennix’s heart pulled at the familiar sight. “So,” he tried, weighing his words, “where do we start?”

Salto gave him a fond, albeit a bit exasperated, expression. “Where else? The beginning of this whole mess.”

Lennix leaned back on his hands, steeling himself against what was to come. He knew they needed to talk about it but he didn’t care to start there of all places. “The night I cheated, then?”

Salto’s expression closed off at that. “Unfortunately, but that is the oldest of the things we haven’t talked about.”


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts:  
>  _1) Song prompt: Mississippi Swells by Nana Grizol’s  
>  2) Dialogue prompt: “What does it mean to be immortal? A long time ago, I was fool enough to think the answer my mission.”  
> 3) Image prompt: _  
> 

“Why did you cheat on me?”

He sighed, flopping back awkwardly onto his wings. “I had never wanted to. I truly thought it was you dragging me back here after too many drinks and I hadn’t seen you all month and you had been smelling good and looking good all evening….”

“Certainly you would have noticed the lack of magic.”

He shook his head, expression twisting up in pain and guilt. “I hadn’t. I truly hadn’t and I _know_ that I should have realized it but I didn’t and I still don’t know _why_.”

Silence bounced around the room only interrupted by the wind that drifted in giggling, whispering about the people outside and how it kept their words private despite the open window.

“You’ve always been able to tell no matter how drunk you got.”

Salto’s words were carefully picked one by one and he could hear the tentative choices Salto was using. It almost sounded like he was trying to piece something together and Lennix sat up, searching the other’s expression for what he heard on the wind.

Salto wasn’t looking at him. Instead, the man was glaring at the corner of the bed in an expression Lennix hadn’t realized he had missed. The man was piecing something together, something that was important. He had seen it a few times as they clashed during their few skirmishes as hero and villain but never had he equated it to being _Salto’s_ expression. He felt his heart twist in his chest.

Damn. He hadn’t gotten over Salto, had he?

Salto’s eyes came up to meet his after a moment, words falling from the man’s lips in a thought process Lennix did not understand. “What do you remember?”

Lennix frowned as he dredged up what remained of that murky night. “I remember the costume party, how I had joked that there were several there dressed as you. You making the offhanded bet that I would be unable to find you among the doppelgangers.” His frowned deepened. “But I had assured you, proved to you time and time again that night that I could and would find you in among the doppelgangers.” He laughed, a smile breaking across his face. “Well, except for the one time that I did it knowingly. You were so pissed, I had to chase you to the backyard and assure you I had been teasing.”

A blush colored Salto’s cheeks and Lennix gripped at the sheets to keep from trying to make that blush spread in such delightful ways. Damn it! He was not supposed to be thinking that right now!

“It hadn’t been funny,” Salto snapped, defensive. He deflated some, curling in on himself, and Lennix felt horrible for even mentioning it. “Five years of loyalty and I still expected you to find someone better.”

There was a flurry of wings and feathers as Lennix moved. Salto sucked in a breath, straightening as Lennix’s hands cupped the man’s face, body curled forward over the man as he hovered his face inches from the other, wings encompassing them both. “You were and still are all that I have ever needed. There will _never_ be someone better than you. No one can match how your magic sings to me like the wind does, thrumming around you as if its bursting to be released, how it courses under your skin in such an intoxicating way. I could never find someone to replace what I’ve become addicted to. You haunt my dreams even after all these years.” Lennix caught sight of Salto’s throat bob as the man swallowed even as his half lidded gaze never left the others. “Even after finding out you were Canis Major this whole time, I felt sorrow instead of anger, grief instead of hatred. I regretted every mark I’ve surely left on your body and your mind. And no matter how much I wish I could course correct us knowing where we are now, there’s nothing I can do to erase what has already happened.”

“Lennix,” Salto breathed but there seemed to be a catch on the word and no more followed.

Lennix gave in and rested his forehead against Salto’s, closing his eyes. “A few short months after I was forced into the ranks of heroes, Kingsman pulled me aside. His words still echo in my ears even to this day.” He opened his eyes and met Salto’s searching gaze steadily. “He told me, ‘What does it mean to be immortal? A long time ago, I was fool enough to think the answer my mission. But the more I searched for the answer, the more I realized that to be immortal is to accept mortality, to live as if the next day will never come and to cherish those you hold dear.’ His words are why I have loved you even when we broke up after my stupid mistake, after the mistakes we both made.” He closed his eyes again, withdrawing enough to shake his head. “I wish I had fought the recruitment, fought becoming a hero. I wish I had thought it through enough to know I needed to resist,” his words stalled and he met Salto’s gaze again even as his heart clenched in his chest, “enough so that I had heard you and the fear you had spoken those words in that quaked the air in a way that makes me fear for you.”

“Lennix,” Salto spoke again with so many emotions, Lennix couldn’t even fathom what Salto was feeling, and the man reached up, gripping Lennix’s wrists in painfully tight holds. He wasn’t pushed away.

“I’m sorry I was such a coward,” Lennix urged. “I didn’t fight for us. I didn’t fight the demons I had seen on your doorstep, and it left me open to a stupid attack.”

Salto shook his head between Lennix’s hands. “You were never responsible for my fights.” The smirk he sent had a watery edge to it. “And I should have sucked it up and let you explain instead of throwing you away and shutting you out. Maybe then we could have avoided all of the pain we had caused each other.” Salto released one of Lennix’s wrists to run careful fingers over a ragged scar on the side of his neck barely hidden by the collar of his jacket. Salto’s fingers traced it, knowing how it cut across Lennix’s skin from having been the cause of it. “I have harmed you more than you have harmed me. Why you still take full responsibility for all the bullshit is beyond me.”

Lennix laughed as an endearing smile graced Salto’s face. “Old habits die hard, it would seem.”

Salto gave a breathy chuckle at that, meeting his gaze again. That hand tracing the scar moved to his cheek. For a moment, Lennix watched Salto’s gaze track his own thumb rubbing against Lennix’s cheek. He shifted closer, gaining Salto’s attention once more.

“Can we try again?” he asked in a breath, lips a breath away from Salto’s.

He felt Salto recoil but the man did not move in his touch. “There will be hell to pay from the factions. Besides, we’ve changed so much. How could we go back to how things were?”

“I don’t want to go back to the beginning,” Lennix confessed. He felt Salto suck in the breath as the other’s eyes grew wide. “I want to start over, start with who we are now and see if we are still as madly in love as we had been the first time we started out.”

Salto gave a wry chuckle. “I wouldn’t have called that 'madly in love’. More of pitiful endearment.”

Lennix grinned. “Potatoes, tomatoes.”

Salto’s face screwed up in disgust at that. “That is not even-”

Lennix brought their lips together, his hold barely on the other so that he was not trapping Salto there. As much as he wanted to try again, to learn about this man all over again, he didn’t have it in him to force the other to try again too.

A breath, a moment for the brain to register what was going on, and suddenly Salto was pressed against him, taking over the kiss and eradicating any thought that Lennix had. When they finally pulled apart, they were sharing chaste kisses with Lennix’s back against the mattress and Salto’s weight against him. His fingers traced unfamiliar lines under clothing, a part of him mourning the years he had missed with this man.

“Are you sure you want to try dating a supervillain?” Salto uttered against his neck.

Lennix wrapped his arms around the other, pressing his face into the side of Salto’s neck. “I may attempt to sway your ways.”

Salto chuckled at that but it lacked any luster to it. “I can’t make any promises it’ll work.” There was a lull in Salto’s words and it weighted on Lennix. “I’m in too deep now to turn things around.”

“Alone, probably, but you’re not alone now and won’t be for as long as you’ll put up with me again.”

Salto pushed himself up enough to look down at him and Lennix met his gaze without hesitation. “You do realize this will be a fight that we can’t win, right?”

Lennix smiled. “No more a fight than the one we faced as gifted children.” He cupped Salto’s face. “We’ll make it through this with a few more scars but we’ll live through it one way or the other.”

Something chirruped, cutting through the moment. Salto shifted about as Lennix assumed it was the man’s phone. He didn’t have any sort of chime for any of his notifications, superhero or otherwise.

“Shit,” the man hissed, getting up.

“You being called in?” Lennix asked, sitting up as Salto pulled an object from an inner pocket. He could see it well enough to recognize the old gift. It warmed his heart to see Salto still utilizing the trinket after all these years.

“Unfortunately,” Salto confirmed, pouring magic into the trinket. It behaved as any wand would, guiding and directing Salto’s burning magic into the purpose Salto urged it to become and his entire attire changed to the familiar outfit of Canis Major. It sent a thrill of unease and worry through him. Salto looked at him, an uneasy expression on the other’s face. “I can drop you off at your home, if you want. This may not be the safest thing for you to come to.”

Lennix got up, shaking his head. “I’m not letting you go into this alone, villains be damned.”

Salto chuckled. Lennix shuddered under the touch of the other’s magic, a thrill racing down his spine at the familiar sensation. Even after so many years, Salto’s magic still felt the same. “That will at least make it less likely anyone will call you Swallow.”

He opened his eyes, taking in Salto’s pleased expression before bringing his wings about to look at them. They didn’t feel or behave differently but they certainly looked different. He realized the only thing Salto had truly changed was the coloring and the only visual change on the smaller feathers seemed to be an illusion. He crossed to the bathroom as Salto’s words followed him.

“It should be enough that no one asks any questions.”

The mirror revealed that Salto had even changed his attire into an outfit that spoke neither of superhero or -villain. The mask that he barely even noticed obscured the majority of his face and hid all of his hair beneath a veil of feathers the same color as his newly recolored wings. No one would be able to tell it was him under it.

“I changed your hair as well, just in case.” He looked to Salto, finding the man leaning against the doorframe in a show of ease. The way the words tumbled in the air spoke of how it was a charade. “As much as it goes against my 'villain’ nature, I don’t want you to be found out.”

Lennix smiled gently and crossed over to Salto. He gave the man a soft kiss, offering against the other’s lips, “I trust you.” He pulled away enough to take in Salto’s full expression. “Let’s go.”

Salto nodded and stepped away. He crossed to the front door and held the trinket up to the door. it flashed as the man’s office door had and Lennix followed him through without hesitation as Salto let magic make his hair dance like fire on his head.

They stepped out into an area Lennix did not recognize. It was foggy and the only real significant thing about the brown landscape was the stick of a tree with a curved trunk and a branch that looked broken.


	4. Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts:  
>  _1)Song prompt: Patricia by Florence and the Machine  
>  2)Dialogue prompt: "I didn't do it to save your life."  
> 3) Image prompt:_  
> 

He didn’t like it. Not one bit.

“Canis Major.”

Lennix turned, unconsciously mimicking Salto’s disposition as he shifted his stance and held himself tall. Standing not far off was three of the highest villains in In-Sight Us. The one that had spoken he knew only by the name of Unknown. He hid his wings shifting outward in a show of fear by shifting his weight and tipping his head to the other side. He hoped it looked like a ploy of boredom.

“Uknown,” Salto greeted, his voice turned course by magic. Lennix managed to hide that shudder. “I thought Brazen had called the summons.”

Lennix looked to Salto. He was joking, right? Blazen was one of the founders of In-Sight Us and was at the top of every Most Wanted list world wide for a reason. Why the bloody hell had Salto let him come?

“I sent it,” the one on Uknown’s left spoke. If Lennix was remembering right, they were a newer villain, only two years in the business, and making a name for themself despite the low casualty counts. Bright, a supervillain whose ability resided in creating and vanishing light. He hadn’t ever had to fight them but he knew of them. Kingsman had wanted to recruit them but In-Sight Us had gotten to them first. “Brazen doesn’t know we’re here nor that it had been sent.”

“It was imperative that you brought your companion,” the one on Unknown’s right commented. Seer, the eldest in In-Sight Us, and one that was known by all heroes but never seen. Rumors had it Seer had some sort of foresight. No one could confirm if it was actual future sight or not. No one could confirm either if Seer had become one of highest villains out of villainy or the information supplied by the ability.

“So we’re safe to talk, then?”

Lennix’s gaze went to Salto and he found the man looking at Seer.

Seer nodded.

Salto relaxed and the magic that had been making his hair dance was suppressed. “Good. Then let us chat freely.”

Lennix backpedaled at the sudden appearance of Unknown in front of him. His wings spread at the surprise, working to help keep his balance as he tripped on the brown foliage. “So who’s your friend, Canis?” Unknown asked and the wind told him they were grinning beneath the faceless mask.

“And why should I tell you?” Salto cut in, his voice hard.

Unknown’s masked face turned to look at Salto. “Because I would rather not waste time on them if they aren’t important to you.”

Salto bristled at that but it was Seer who spoke up. “Leave the Swallow alone, Una. It is not kind to crowd when you are still unknown.”

Lennix slowly folded his wings back in as Unknown went from looking at Seer to him. “So you’re the famous Swallow?”

Lennix glanced at Salto. His unasked question was answered when he felt the spell leave his person. He felt his wings twitch at being exposed in front of villains ranked higher than he would ever hope to match. “I’m not so sure about the famous part,” he finally amended.

“Brazen has you on his radar.”

Lennix’s gaze snapped to Bright, eyes wide as he felt the color drain from his face. “Why?” he choked out.

Bright shrugged. “Kingsman recruited you personally. That would draw anyone’s attention to you.”

“It’s why you’re famous,” Unknown explained. He looked back at that faceless mask. “The entire world is watching you, wondering why _Kingsman_ personally recruited a juvenile aviary when there were hundreds of thousands of aviary to choose from.”

“I wasn’t that young,” he tried to defend, overwhelmed by the realization that he was in a unique situation, one that was spelling out his death letter by letter.

“You were young in the realm of knowledge.” He turned his gaze to Seer, lost in the growing turmoil. “You had yet to have a family, you had yet to live life. There were a many a aviary that had gone to battle in wars and against villains that it was bizarre that Kingsman chose to personally recruit an aviary that had never witnessed such things after the Magnum Incident. Recruitment for both sides were at their highest, both sides trying to get as many powerful people as they could to keep the line moving in the direction they wanted. But where In-Sight Us recruits anyone with an ability and willing to become a goon, Heroes Unite was selective in who they deemed as heroes and those they deemed as support. They guided those that were not powerful or far too kind or far too harsh into sectors that needed them: first response, collateral control, evacuation. We gained a number from Heroes Unite because of such a system but because of it, Heroes Unite is a force far greater than In-Sight Us could ever imagine of equaling. That is why when the head of Heroes Unite, the founder of the leading hero organization, personally recruited an aviary still wet behind the ears, the world watched and kept watching. Your ten years of service have proven that Kingsman’s choice was not in vain but no one has seen anything as to the reason why.”

Lennix ran a shaking hand through his hair. He knew a good chunk of that information, knew how the two factions worked even if it was just the basics, but he had lacked the chance to think on what it meant that Kingsman had come after him. He had assumed it wasn’t uncommon. The man started Heroes Unite. He had to have done recruiting personally in the beginning, right?

But it explained why he had wanted to keep Salto out of all of it, why he kept his mouth shut despite the urge to go against the oath he had given Kingsman. He had known on some level of the target on his back. Now he knew the size of it and fathomed he still didn’t see how big it truly was.

“So why am I important in all this?” Lennix asked, bringing his gaze back to Seer.

“You are important. That is all I know.”

Lennix looked to Salto but Salto was talking in soft whispers with Unknown. There was no wind to carry their words to him. Their conversation ended shortly after he looked their way.

“Are we going to be able to take down In-Sight Us?” Salto asked as he straightened.

Unknown traipsed back to the other two as Seer answered. “Brazen will be a challenge that you may die against.”

Salto waved off the comment. “What is coming is far worse than my own mortality. I do not want to start this with not knowing if we have the best chance of changing things for the better.”

“How long have you been planning on taking down In-Sight Us from the inside?” Lennix cut in, bewildered.

Salto looked at him. “Since I was inducted into the organization. I never wanted to be a villain and there are many others who regret the decision as well. Not all, sadly, but many.”

“The only things we have left to do is to make sure there is a system that helps reform those that enjoy this line of work that works,” Unknown interjected. “We cannot leave it to chance that they will start up a new villain organization when In-Sight Us falls.”

Lennix shook his head. “You can’t manage that. There will always be villains in the word.”

“True,” Salto agreed, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t give it our all. Even the worst of us change.”

“Even Brazen?”

“Brazen and Kingsman grew up as brothers,” Seer supplied and Lennix found himself staring at them. “They had originally wanted to help the world together and had good intentions on both sides, but even Kingsman is not unaffected by the world. There is a manic sort of edge to Kingsman if you truly look and Brazen had not always wanted death for all. It is not hard to find the information if you know what to look for.”

“What changed it?” he found himself asking.

“Death did,” Unknown spoke, taking over. “The two of them saw the worst of human kind and were tainted by it, but where one saw the need to save, the other saw the need to eradicate. But do not be quick to assume which one believes which. Even Kingsman wants to eradicate a part of the populous and Brazen wants to save a part as well. Otherwise Kingsman would not have created Heroes Unite as he had and Brazen would not have created In-Sight Us to begin with. Kingsman sees those in the hero ranks as nothing more than pawns as of late.” There was a pause that left him feeling like Unknown was staring him down, searching for the secrets in his soul. “You’ve seen it, been subjected to it, correct?”

Lennix nodded slowly.

“We best get going,” Seer suddenly interjected. “Canis Major, be careful with Swallow.”

“Of course, Seer,” Salto assured.

“Keep in touch, Swallow,” Unknown chimed, saluting as the three of them simply vanished.

“How am I supposed to do that?” he asked the wind. It laughed at him.

“Let’s get you home,” Salto spoke, coming up to Lennix’s side. “It isn’t wise to stay here for too long.”

Lennix nodded Salto took hold of the random door’s door handle. Even though he knew it hadn’t been there a moment ago, it looked like it had always been there and belonged there not attached to anything. The door opened up to his front entrance and he stepped into his home.

Salto closed the door, looking around. “I didn’t realize you had settled down.”

“I hadn’t had much of a choice when my sister passed away,” Lennix explained, crossing down the long hallway towards the back of the house. The hallway was only distinguishable from the living room area and the subsequent dining area by a few polls left over from the wall his sister had taken down and the way the furniture was arranged. The open floor plan helped him not feel so caged but he didn’t like having the big house to himself. Well, not just himself.

He stepped out onto the back deck, down the steps and into the yard beyond. He let out a whistle as the shifting air told him Salto had followed him. “I wasn’t about to keep North in an apartment.”

“North?” Salto parroted.

“North Star, Patricia’s dog,” he explained, looking to Salto. “German shepherd you used to call ‘annoying dog’ and 'useless mutt’ even as you loved all over him.”

Salto gave him a look. “His name was North? Since when?”

Lennix rolled his eyes with a smile as the wind told him North was coming. Looking back towards the seemingly boundless backyard, he watched North come walking back looking tired but happy to see him. He squat down, letting the large dog press his head into his shoulder. Lennix rubbed at North’s shoulders, a sad smile on his face. “Patricia had written up her will about a year before she passed away when her husband and their children had been taken in a nasty car accident. Before then, she had trusted Scott to handle everything should the cancer take her sooner but at that point….”

The wind rolled around them, gleeful and carefree as it told him what was around. It didn’t tell him Salto moved. It didn’t warn him of Salto’s touch. Still, he leaned back into the other’s leg as Salto’s fingers ran comfortingly through his hair. “I’m sorry. I had thought that not staying in touch with her was the better option.”

He closed his eyes. He felt North sit so close, the dog was practically laying against his chest. “She had hated you up until she was diagnosed with cancer two years later. She managed to fight it and overcome it but then the accident happened and it came back with a vengeance. She passed away peacefully three years ago but it hit the family pretty hard, North included.”


	5. Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts:  
>  _1) Song prompt: Serial Killer by Moncrieff X judge  
>  2) Dialogue prompt: "No, that wasn't hazing, orange really does flatter you."  
> 3) Image prompt:_  
> 

He opened his eyes. “She told me a few months before she passed that she was glad you didn’t know anything. She thought that it was for the better that you were left without the burden of having to watch her suffer and left with the memories of her being happy and healthy with her husband and children.”

“I would have preferred to have gotten to say goodbye, though,” Salto choked out and Lennix fought the sudden welling of tears as he swallowed against the lump in his throat. “Why had I been so stubborn?”

“I never got the chance to say goodbye to my niece and nephew,” he offered lamely, trying - and failing - to deny the emotions trying to drown him. “They were all dead by the time help arrived.”

Salto’s hand clenched in his hair and he welcomed the pinpricks of pain from his hair being pulled. It helped against the tears, or so he told himself. “How had they died? Drunk driver? Icy roads?”

“Casualty of a villain battle.” Salto stiffened under him but he didn’t give him the chance to dwell on it. “Trigger was thrown onto the highway where he and Celestial went at it. Cars occupied and not were thrown this way and that with chunks of concrete.”

A strange stillness settled over Salto. The man’s body hadn’t changed but his magic had, stilling in a way that left Lennix fretting. But before he could ask anything, Salto was speaking. “You were there.”

Lennix closed his eyes again, the burning tears making it impossible to see anyways. North started to slowly lick his palm. “Yes,” he finally admitted after a long pause, the wind letting him know he was crying by cooling the wet streaks on his face. “Sprite and I were only a few seconds behind them. We immediately went into evacuation and rescue mode but we were ill equipped and already things were flying. The best we could do was stop other vehicles from being smashed. We caught a bus between the two of us but a shipper from some random semi got past our notice and demolished a few vehicles. I found out later that the car that had been completely smashed had been my brother-in-law’s.”

Salto crumpled behind him and Lennix moved to let the man have his own weight only to find Salto had wrapped himself around Lennix’s shoulders, wet face pressed into his neck. “I’m so sorry.” The grip around him tightened. “I’m….so sorry.”

He choked on the sob that ripped itself from him and he tried to fight the ones that followed to no avail. Years of grief he had thought he had handled just fine came rushing back and it was all he could do not to shatter in Salto’s arms.

He felt drained when he finally stopped crying. Too lethargic to care, he was surprised when Salto clambered to his feet. The other offered him a hand as North got up as well. “Come on. Let’s get you to bed.”

Lennix took Salto’s hand.

When he awoke the following morning, it was to foggy memories of what had happened the night before. He knew that he had told Salto of the deaths in his family since they had last seen each other, knew that Salto had made them food and gotten him in bed, but he couldn’t remember any details, if anything else had happened, or actually living through it.

He pushed himself upright, rubbing at his face. He wasn’t as exhausted as he had half expected. He looked to the other side of the bed when he heard shifting.

Salto was still asleep next to him, face appearing younger in sleep. Faint scars were stark on the other’s skin, each telling a story. He traced the few he knew he had placed on that perfect form, letting himself remember how he had given them, and followed his fingers with his lips, kissing apologies to each one.

“Sap.”

He all but smiled against Salto’s skin at the groggy, snide comment and offered in reply, “Can’t help it. Last I checked, though, you’re the one that turned me into a sap.”

Salto rolled onto his back, exposing a bare chest that had more scars than the other side did. He traced a nasty one, trying to remember if he had done it or not.

“Celestial, four years ago.”

He hummed in acknowledgement. He kissed it, grateful it hadn’t been fatal.

Salto’s hand found his hair. Lennix leaned into the touch even as he kissed another scar.

Both of their phones went off.

Lennix straightened as Salto sat up. Confusion pulled at his face as he reached over and picked his up. He heard Salto grab his.

For a long moment, there was silence between them as they both stared at their screens. When the words couldn’t stick any more, Lennix brought his gaze up to meet Salto’s finding his own confusion reflected in the other’s frown. He opened and closed his mouth but the words were stuck in his throat. He tried to say anything.

“What do we do?”

The words were weak, thick with conflicted emotions, and Salto looked down at his phone. “We do what we have to.”

“But I don’t want to fight you,” Lennix confessed, the words no stronger than the last.

Salto kissed him. “And you won’t. I’m not going in to respond to Brazen’s summons. I’m going in to help make sure as few people as possible lose their lives in this folly.”

Lennix shook his head. “Kingsman’s going to expect me on the front lines.”

The smile Salto sent him eased some of his worries. “Then I’ll watch your back as I get people out of there.”

Lennix nodded feeling lost still but not alone. He got out of bed with Salto and dressed as the other used his magic to change. In 15 minutes, they were dressed in their respective outfits standing at Lennix’s bedroom door.

“What color do you want to paint the room?”

“Hmm?” Salto responded as the door flashed.

“The bedroom,” Lennix explained. He knew it was weird but he was desperate. “I don’t care for the color but I’ve never settled on one to repaint it with. When we get back, do you want to go look at paint colors?”

Salto paused with his hand on the doorknob. A beat and then Salto was looking back at him with a soft smile. “We’re going to be ok, Lennix.”

He tried to give Salto a flat look but he was sure his uncertainty was showing. “I know that. Why do you think I’m trying to make plans for when this whole fiasco is over?”

Salto chuckled, kissing him briefly. “I would love to go looking at paint with you,” he replied. “The kitchen needs to be repainted anyways.”

Lennix beamed because, if nothing else, that meant Salto was going to be around long enough that the kitchen paint was going to annoy him to no end.

The door opened onto a battlefield in the middle of a metropolis. The wind brought him screams and sirens, cries of anguish and pain, shouts for loved ones and against antagonizers. It brought to him the shouts in battle, the rippling of powers beings used, and the sound of movement.

He beat his wings against the air, ending the stream of sounds for a moment.

“Be careful out there. Brazen’s in this battle and may be looking to end things,” Salto warned him.

Lennix nodded. “You too. The other heroes may not hesitate to take a shot at you.”

As if to make a point, something solid and fast slammed into Salto. Lennix spun on the ball of his foot to face the attacker only to find himself facing down Brazen himself.

“Well, well, well,” the older man drawled, a feral grin on his face. “Look what the witch dragged in; a postal owl. Here to take my letter to Kingsman, pigeon?”

He shifted into a better stance, his feet scraping gravel across the pavement. “I’d rather not, thanks,” he shot back even as terror pulsed through him.

Brazen chuckled. “Pity.” The man glared at him while the grin only grew. “You don’t have a choice.”

Pain.

White hot pain.

All he knew was the burning, white hot pain and a weird echo in his being, like the wind telling him someone was screaming but refusing to tell him who. A flare of pain and suddenly he was face down on the cold, rough pavement as Brazen’s hands seared right through his wings near the shoulders. He screamed and screamed some more. Another flare of pain and it vanished, leaving him cold, worn, and twitching. There was noise and he could feel the wind.

He couldn’t hear the wind.

He choked on a sob.

He couldn’t hear the _wind_.

Something searing hot grabbed his head, ripping a scream from his throat as he was pulled off the ground. Something was talking in his ear and pain from his back made him twitch. He forced one eye open.

Why was Salto behind restrained?

He opened his other eye despite the pain he was in.

Why was Salto crying? Screaming, even?

Pain erupted within him. It was so much that he couldn’t even tell where it came from as he blacked out.

When he came to, it was to the wind’s gentle caress urging him awake. He wasn’t sure why it was waking him. He was in too much pain to even believe he had a chance to live, not to mention a life without wings terrified him. Still, he used what energy he had to open his eyes.

The view was sideways. He was laying on the broken street looking down the main thoroughfare void of the crowds.

Instead, he saw Salto standing where Lennix had last seen him and even as his eyes fell closed again, the image was seared into his brain.

Now he knew why he had been so vital, why Kingsman got to him before Brazen could, why Seer had said that he was important.

The image seared into his dying mind was that of Salto hovering a few feet of the ground arched slightly backwards with his arms spread at his side as destructive magic poured out of him in a tangle of colors.

Salto’s face had been in a scream, the tears rising off his cheeks with the magic that poured out of him, coloring those beautiful eyes with pure light.

He woke to the wind’s gentle caress. He blinked and sat up, finding himself not where he had last been and certainly not where he would have thought he would have been instead. Getting up, he crossed to the curtains and threw them open.

It was still early morning, meaning the mountain forest view was still thick with fog and dark against the brightening sky.

He jumped when something brushed against his arm and he spun only to find the thing that had brushed his arm was a wing. His wing. He stumbled over his own feet to get to the bathroom. He used the bathroom sink to keep himself upright as he stared into the mirror.

His wings were there and looked undamaged. He stretched them this way and that and found that they felt as great as they had always been, as if what he had experienced had been nothing more than a dream.

He grabbed at his shirt frantically.

The scar was still violently red raw but it was healed and with no pain. He shuddered at the memory of Brazen burying his hand in his gut, burning him alive from the inside.

Out of the pain and anguish, he really could remember the battle clearly. He hadn’t had a chance and never imagined he would. He shuddered at the reminder of the horrors he had gone through but he was still baffled. How was he alive, let alone with wings once more? Brazen had taken them from him, had removed them by his own hand burning through flesh and bone.

He wandered back into the bedroom, looking around.

There was no sign of Salto anywhere. He turned to check the rest of the house when he realized the paint color was different.

Tears surged to his eyes and they burned as he swallowed them down. No, he was not going to think that. Not until he checked.

There was the sound of something fluttering and the mostly still air moved enough to tell him to turn around.

A letter rested on his pillow perfectly centered and looking strangely out of place.

He moved to pick it up.

The door behind him opened, startling a scream out of him.

“Holy-don’t do that!”

Lennix stared at Salto as the man stood in the doorway, a tray clenched between a pair of shaking hands. Color had rushed the other’s face in a show of fury and Lennix found he couldn’t keep himself upright anymore.

“Lennix!”

Familiar hands caught him before he collapsed to the ground and he grabbed at the other, pulling him close and sucking in a deep breath of the smell that clung to Salto that was all his own. He pressed his forehead to the other’s neck, seeking and finding the familiar thrum of magic beneath Salto’s skin.

“For a moment, I thought-”

Lennix cut his own words off and he felt Salto tighten his hold. It was weird. He knew this was Salto but there wasn’t the feeling of magic desperately fighting against an invisible barrier in Salto’s aura. It was calmer, soothing even, with the same thrum of energy that ran through Salto’s veins.

“I had, for a moment,” Salto confessed, fingers curling into the back of Lennix’s shirt. “When he dropped you with that hole in your chest, I thought you had died and a part of me died with you in that moment. Something within me snapped and I felt like I was dying, dying because you weren’t there to try again, you weren’t there to think about how your day may be going.” Lennix felt him choke on the next words and still push through. “Because you weren’t there to go paint shopping anymore after _you_ had planned the stupid trip.”

“But I’m alive,” Lennix reminded him, even as his confusion on the matter spilled into the words.

Salto’s laugh came out watery and sorrow filled. “Just barely. When I finally came back to myself, it was because Brazen had gotten through whatever storm I was creating with my magic and punched me in the face. I don’t know how that knocked the senses back into me, but it worked. I was suddenly focused, pissed, and with magic at a level I had never thought possible. I was able to take Brazen down, ending it all by ridding him of his ability and altering his memory in a way I hadn’t even known existed.” Salto took in a shuddering breath. “Kingsman had shown up at some point and had brought along a healer that was keeping you alive. When Kingsman came and gathered Brazen up in a tight hug, I went to your side. There was still so much damage but I could fix it. I could feel it in my soul that I could repair all of it. So I did. Your wings were reattached but still had burn scars and the wound in your chest wasn’t threatening your life when I was stopped. Had I gone on, I would have killed myself and I hadn’t even realized it till Kingsman grabbed my arm and broke my concentration. I was hospitalized after that to make sure that there weren’t any serious repercussions beyond magical exhaustion.”

Lennix doubted that was all Salto had been hospitalized for but let it be as he pulled back and cupped the other’s face. He offered the other an encouraging smile. “You did amazing, Salto. I’m so proud of you.”

Salto gave him a tight smile that didn’t even reach his eyes. “You say that but you’ve been in a coma for five weeks. I painted the whole house just waiting for you to wake up.”

Lennix laughed at that. Salto let out a manic sort of chuckle but it was enough and Salto relaxed as the chuckle turned into a proper laugh. “I can’t believe I painted the whole house. And It wasn’t even with magic. It was like I was suddenly possessed to repaint every room in the house and then some by hand. Did all of it in a week.”

“Did you sleep?” Lennix squawked in worry.

That seemed to rid Salto of the last of the manic for now as he laughed. “Not a wink,” he stated proudly with a grin. “I crashed when I couldn’t see straight anymore and ate when North bugged me for food.” The grin softened into a smile, running a hand through Lennix’s hair. “And, honestly? It was the best thing I could have done. It calmed me down, let me feel productive and successful, and let me get on with everything else that needed tending to afterwards.”

Lennix shook his head even as a chuckle bubbled out of him. “At least you seemed to have picked colors I like. This room’s not a horrible orange color like I feared you might pick.”

The smacking was totally worth it.

“So why didn’t I wake up at the hospital?”

“You did.” Salto placed the plate of light food on the table before him. “But it would seem that you hadn’t come fully out of it, though you had seemed rather coherent. You recognized me, said my name, and had even asked the doctor to send you home.” Salto tapped his fork against his plate. “I’m honestly surprised you don’t remember it.”

Lennix shrugged, scooping up a bite. “What happened to Brazen?”

“I’m not sure. Kingsman asked me to rid him of his ability too, saying something about wanting to be on Brazen’s level and live the normal life they had both been robbed.”

Lennix let that sink in as he ate a few bites. “And the public?”

“They believe that the two of them finished each other off in a final showdown and that the rest of the fighting had petered out on its own. Unknown has contacted me a few times since letting me know that In-Sight Us was being taken down from the inside out. As of yesterday, In-Sight Us no longer exists.”

Lennix stared at Salto. “Seriously?”

Salto nodded. “Seer says it’ll be a few more weeks before Heroes Unite disbands under the radar as well out of no longer being needed.”

Lennix looked back down at his plate. “Then, it’s over.”

“Seems like it.”

Lennix snapped his gaze up, blurting, “Do you want to move in?”

Salto choked on his bite and despite the ranting that followed suit, Salto said yes.


End file.
